On the Epidemiological Evolution of Colistin-Resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii in the City of Valencia: An Agent-Based Modelling Approach

¹ Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain
² Instituto de Matemática Multidisciplinar, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
³ Public Health Program, Ponce Health Sciences University, Ponce, Puerto Rico
⁴ MSD (IS), LLC, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

^* Corresponding author: caranvi1@upv.es

Received: 13 December 2022
Accepted: 20 October 2023

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest public health threats today, mainly due to the non-rational use of antibiotics. Acinetobacter baumannii is an example of a microorganism with high antibiotic resistance that has developed rapidly in recent years. Consequently, only a few lastresort antibiotics, such as colistin, are currently effective against it. In this work, we propose a random agent-based computational model to describe the evolution of colistin-resistant A. baumannii in the population of Valencia (Spain) and to predict its impact both on the whole population and by age groups. The agent- based model uses a synthetic population of individuals with a vector of characteristics or state variables. These variables change over time based on a series of random events with certain conditional probabilities. The synthetic population statistical features and the probabilities have been found in demographic and hospital databases. One of these probabilities, the probability of infection by a resistant strain, has been modeled using random differential equations. The model takes into account antibiotic consumption as the primary driving force of variation and assumes non-rewersibility of resistance as the worst-case scenario. The agent-based model calibration and the selection of a real-world representative set of solutions have been carried out using the Partide Swarm Optimization evolutionary algorithm. This approach takes into account the inherent stochasticity of the model and the uncertainty of the data. Finally, projections of the incidence and absolute cases of colistin-resistant A. baumannii have been performed. Our results suggest that, if the same consumption pattern continues, the ervolution of the colistin-resistant strain proportion will be exponential, exceeding 50% in 2025. Additionally, the results reveal that, despite the low incidence in Valencian hospitals, the impact on people over 60 years old will be more significant in terms of the number of cases. Based on these findings, it can be deduced that colistin will cense to be an effective antibiotic in the coming years, negatively impacting the human population, especially the most advanced age groups.